Deterioration of Domestic Recover/Recycled Fiber

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (www.isri.org) is prominent in setting standards for the classification of secondary fiber. It sets the definitions used by traders in the more than 50 million tons/year U.S. recovered paper market. Curbside collection over the last 15 years has grown and now accounts for 10–15 million tons of this total; now there are concerns about the quality of single-stream residential collection.

Double-lined kraft (DLK) clippings from box plants are very clean, and old corrugated containers (OCC) from supermarkets and big-box stores are excellent sources of fiber for recycled linerboard and recycled medium. However, 30 percent of our containerboard-bound fiber now comes from sources offshore, which package the goods we buy that are not manufactured in the United States. Since the United States grows the strongest fiber in the world, anything we add from outside sources has the opportunity for weakening our containerboard.

Now add to the above possibility the fiber contamination that could be introduced from newspapers, junk mail, magazines, printing and writing papers, and paperboard packaging. These are all different types of fibers and challenge the mechanical fiber-to-fiber bonding we prefer for the strongest containerboard grades. Our mills are able to reclaim and process fiber, but with more variations and poorer quality coming into our system, we may experience recycled components that are very different from one another.

Here is the exact wording from the Paper Stock Industries website and specification document. The first one would be the addition of a new category of Old Corrugated Containers (OCC, grade B) and the second a change to the original one and all-inclusive category.

OCC grade B — Consists primarily of OCC and includes other brown grades of paper sorted from fiber collected typically, but not limited to, residential recycling programs. Includes domestic and offshore OCC (not limited as to percentage), grocery bags, boxboard cartons, and other household papers. May contain up to 10 percent white or colored papers. Prohibitive materials may not exceed 1 percent (wax-coated, foil papers, other nonpaper material). Out-throws plus prohibitives may not exceed 5 percent.

OCC — Consists of corrugated containers having liners of either test liner or kraft, the majority of which is made of U.S. domestic corrugated containers. May contain a maximum of 30 percent offshore OCC. Prohibitive materials may not exceed 1 percent (wax-coated, foil papers, other nonpaper material). Out-throws plus prohibitives may not exceed 5 percent.

So, what does all this mean to a combiner of linerboards and mediums, a converter of corrugated sheets, and a buyer of boxes that all look brown but may behave quite differently in the supply chain? Not every mill system and every paper machine has the ability to clean and prepare mixed fibers for processing into containerboards made from recycled fiber. There are instances where there is a lack of cleaning and sorting of recovered fiber, and the mill has to use “clean” double-lined kraft clippings from box plants to avoid commingled waste and contamination from nonfiber products.

Even with all these concerns, we are still the preferred supplier to China, but that can change! I have often pointed members and associates to the container­board grade structure as it exists in Europe. Long challenged by a declining quality of fiber for packaging for a variety of reasons, the containerboard producers agreed to several different qualities based on the Mullen/burst and stacking strength potential short column test—or what we know as STFI or cross-direction ring crush.

The five—yes five—quality levels based on performance are as follows:

• Brown kraftliner
• Test liner 1
• Test liner 2
• Test liner 3
• Test liner 4

Now, it may be that this classification is not completed based on fiber quality but may consider the levels of manufacturing sophistication at the individual mills. Some of this structuring is also based on a broader mix of corrugated products than what we experience here. In other words, some applications may call for lower-quality containerboards. Visit www.cepi-containerboard.org for more information.

Ralph Young is the principal of Alternative Paper Solutions and is AICC’s technical adviser. Contact Ralph directly about technical that impact our industry at askralph@aiccbox.org.